UITP Summit 2025: inaugurating a new annual format in Hamburg. Mohamed Mezghani speaking

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As the UITP Summit 2025 approaches, anticipation is building for what promises to be another landmark event in the world of urban mobility. The Summit will take place from June 15-18 in Hamburg, marking the first time the city will host this gathering under the new annual format, with Dubai set to host the 2026 edition.

In 2023, the UITP Summit in Barcelona welcomed over 10,000 participants, 425 speakers, 335 exhibitors, and 250 journalists from more than 110 countries.

In this interview, Mohamed Mezghani, Secretary General of UITP, discusses the preparations for the 2025 Summit, the themes shaping the programme, and the significance of bringing together public transport professionals from around the world.

Mohamed, the UITP Summit is fast approaching, and Hamburg will be the first host city under the new annual format. How is the team preparing for the 2025 gathering (15-18 June)?

In some ways it’s hard to believe that we’re on the cusp of hosting the next UITP Summit, when the 2023 edition in Barcelona feels so close to mind. There’s always a special energy in the air when the Summit is approaching. We’re heading into a new era of the UITP Summit with the annual edition format beginning in 2026 with Dubai set as the local host city and the excitement is growing. It’s not an easy task to arrange an event such as this (in a past life I have been project manager of the UITP World Congress, so I know this first hand!), but it’s important for our members, partners and stakeholders that we do this. We say that ‘the public transport sector meets here’ for a reason. It’s the place to be, and the standout moment in the calendars of all urban mobility professionals.

Our delegates of course don’t just get to attend the UITP Summit for the world-class exhibition and sector-leading programme, they have an entire agenda created for them. At the heart of that is people. We’re a member-led association, and our sector is a people-driven one. Our delegates get the opportunity to network, interact, and experience. I would say that collaboration is a theme running throughout the Summit.

But you are not just attending the Summit, you also have the opportunity to discover our host city. In Hamburg, you will be welcomed to a city with a rich culture that offers seamless connections for its residents and visitors. With a public transport network to be proud of – and ambitious mobility plans in place – Hamburg is an ideal setting to welcome the UITP Summit.

At UITP, we have just launched our brand-new Strategic Plan, centred around putting people first. Those people are our colleagues, our members, and the policy makers, with a focus on delivering for the public transport sector. The Summit is about bringing the sector together and collaborating to drive excellence in the sector. I’m very much looking forward to it.

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Has UITP been interacting with the local players and audience in the lead-up to the 2025 edition? What has that experience been like?

The UITP Summit is the largest event of its kind focused on advancing urban mobility, and is global on every level. But what is extra special about the Summit, is that it also has a local feel. The local hosts and the local players are a large part of the experience.

It’s important to build a special relationship with the audience, especially now that we will go back to Hamburg for a further confirmed edition in 2027. We have many members in Germany, and our connections there are strong. But when it comes to the Summit, you need to go beyond the existing relationships and expand your community. Last Autumn we held a Summit launch in Hamburg with the explicit reason of meeting and interacting with the local and national players. They play a key role as major stakeholders and supporters of Hamburg’s success as a Summit host city.

With politicians, CEOs, national press, and industry leaders gathering together, the Summit has a chance to shine under a different kind of spotlight – one that shows how important bringing the Summit to your city is for the local and national economy. And there’s really no better way to the get the local and national audience engaged and interested than personalising the Summit for them with this special introduction. It was a huge success and only confirmed that Hamburg is a city on the cutting edge of innovation, mobility expansion, and an active arena for public transport that others can aspire to.

Anticipating the programme of UITP Summit 2025

What can you share with us about the programme at this stage? Do you have any news to share on the topics?

Our programme is coming together at an impressive speed, and the UITP Summit Programme Committee is working hard to deliver it. For now, our programme overview is available, as are the six session tracks that will define the focus of the entire programme. The six tracks are Net Zero Cities, Operations, Lifestyle, People-Centricity, Sustainability and Technology. This means that the full programme will be guided by these tracks, and when expanded they will focus on Driving policies to net zero, Operating according to local needs, Sustainable mobility as a lifestyle, Focus on people and communities, Aligning mobility planning with the SDGs, and Technologies for change. What you can see from this approach is that the most pressing sector topics will be brought to the table for exchange with our delegates. The Summit programme will be notable in that it will discuss topics in the context of recent political developments and changes. Climate action, services, urban living, passenger and employee wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, sustainability targets, and technological innovations… these will be the guiding direction, and people will remain as the red thread throughout it.

With the new annual format in place, the 2026 edition is already in the agenda. From Hamburg you head to Dubai – can you give our readers a sneak peek?

The UITP Summit is always closed off with a handover to our next host city. This time of course the handover will be one that will come within the next year of wrapping up Hamburg! Under our new format we head outside of Europe for the next edition, and that means from 21-23 April 2026 we will be focused on ‘Destination Dubai’. UITP and Dubai have a very lengthy and successful relationship that goes back many decades.

Our membership started to grow in the UAE in the early 2000s, and to build strong relationships we have had an office there since the mid-2000s. Dubai is a city that grows at a very impressive rate, and with that development, urban mobility is always at the heart of it. In fact, when the Summit arrives in Dubai in 2026, it will be exactly 15 years since the Summit was last hosted there in 2011.

Can you imagine what developments will have taken place in a location such as Dubai after 15 years? Public transport has developed at a truly impressive rate thanks to the strong focus and commitment of our local host Roads and Transport Authority Dubai. Of course we do not just land in a location by chance, Dubai as the local host city is also an acknowledgment of the impressive public transport developments in the MENA region, including (but not limited to) Egypt, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and more. The MENA region is alive with innovation, and the Summit in Dubai is sure to be an impressive gathering.

It is of course too early to discuss the programme, but the conversations that will take place in Hamburg will guide us to what talking points will be on the table for the Dubai edition, so the Summit becomes even more important when held on an annual basis. By attending the Summit in Hamburg, you can contribute to reviewing the trends and discussing the direction the sector should take.

Dubai will have the distinction of being the first non-European location to welcome the Summit under our new format, and in 2026 it will actually be 140 years since the first UITP Summit (under a different name) was held in 1886. It really will become ‘Destination Dubai’!

2026: Destination Dubai

You mentioned that the first Summit was hosted in 1886… From its original name and premise to the new annual approach in 2025: what does the Summit mean to you as a public transport professional?

The short answer would be that it means a great deal. My own history with UITP is lengthy, and I can think back to many World Congresses, Global Summits and recall the people I met, and the conversations we focused on.

When I think of what public transport was then and is now – this is a sector that creates and innovates. Change does not come overnight, and if we are determined to make lasting progress in public transport then we will need collective thinking for workable solutions. It’s a challenge, but if we look at what the entire sector was able to achieve during the global pandemic, we know that public transport steps up to face its challenges. Looking at the impacts of climate and extreme weather, tackling the latest technological innovations, recruiting, and retaining staff…public transport is a vital entity for our cities, one that is facing serious and important challenges. I think that in itself shows how important the Summit is. And now that the Summit is annual, I hope the achievements made, and the memories built will be more special.

When it comes to making memories, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. The most recent edition in Barcelona in 2023 was home to over 10,000 participants, 425 speakers, 335 exhibitors, 250 journalists, all from over 110 countries. That’s a lot of people to interact with!

And on a personal level, what the Summit means to me is that brilliant people aspect. Public transport is about people, and when you have thousands of them gathered together determined to change our sector, our cities, and our planet for the better, what more could you want. If you think of the public transport sector as one big community. One with collective goals, aims and missions. In that instance, bringing the entire sector together makes the UITP Summit somewhat of a family reunion. And this family has a joint objective: To improve the quality of life in our cities, and move people for a sustainable and inclusive world. For the Summit, the delegates come from across the globe, and from the entire mobility ecosystem. This is what makes the UITP Summit the place to be!